A stride towards sentient cities: Architecture as performance art

Abstract

Abstract My researches into 'architecture as music' have led me to investigate how a synchronicity of sound and space, acting together, can enable buildings to become not only smart but also sentient. It was one particular building in the City of London that prompted me to join the patterns of architecture with the rhythms of music in an experimental audio-visual performance called Citirama. Each of the piece's three movements throws some new light on what makes a building 'musical' ‐ i.e. capable of exerting some power over our emotional response. I take a journey back in time to find that architecture is a world of relationships very close to that of the performing musician but, if we are to apply the lessons of music more widely, it will be necessary that we obtain some understanding of how our brains' pathways and neural mechanisms enable us to see and hear through a process of pattern recognition. Only then will the indelible links between architecture and music enable architects to act more as composers in rebalancing the challenges that underpin the future of our cities. I illustrate what I mean by 'musicality' with reference to a specific urban community that is close to home ‐ the Barbican.